Liva Isakson Lundin’s Fascinating Installations Give New Form To Material

Lundin’s thought-provoking and playful installations resemble rubber bands, ribbons and even suction cups, bringing together contrasting materials in unforeseen ways. Her works hold the contradiction of being both static and flowing, although they are indeed fixed. For example, in ‘To Hold Sway’ (2018), strips of steel curl and curve through the air as if they were silk, yet the numerous black ropes holding the metal in place at varying angles, delicately placed, testify to the steel’s heavy mass. ‘Svikt, rum 2’ (2018), meaning failure in English, depicts colossal belts of rubber, stretching and bending over two white planks resting at opposing angles. ‘Stimuli’ (2016) involves glossy, sashaying metal strips that begin and end inside bright yellow cubes of gelatine. Movement is a key thematic element here; it’s as if energy is in motion, ricocheting from one end to the other. In each of these elegant material works it is often hard to tell which element supports the other. Through a process of extensive experimentation, Lundin achieves an aesthetic balance between tension and weight that champions the beauty in everyday materials.